The agency continues to provide avenues for both clients and staff to address their physical wellness. CHRISTUS Healthy Living Mobile Clinic provided flu shots to the agency at no charge. This is the second consecutive year they have partnered with the agency. We also provided an opportunity for COVID vaccines and booster shots to the clients and staff. Dr. Ross with Elevation Health provides the shots but also gives medical education components to whomever she administers the shot. One client stated, “this was perfect timing because my job now requires the vaccine.”

Burlington Coat Factory has partnered with the agency to provide coats for every client in the shelter and hotel program. Last year we received an abundance that we were able to put several coats in the client store for non-residential clients. If you are a Burlington Coat Factory shopper, please drop in and say thank you to the manager for hosting the coat drive for the Agency.

Please join the leadership team in acknowledging our very own Carla Medlenka as one of nine finalists for the Houston Texans Community Quarterback Award presented by BHP. Her submission was reviewed amongst numerous others and the committee was very moved by the work Carla has been doing for Bay Area Turning Point. As a finalist of the Community Quarterback Award, Bay Area Turning Point will be awarded $5,000 on Carla’s behalf and she will be recognized at our December 5th game against the Indianapolis Colts. Please read below why we believe she the Houston Texans Community Quarterback of the Year for Bay Area Turning Point.

Carla has supported Bay Area Turning Point since 2000 – first, as a volunteer, in 2013 joined the board, served as an officer in roles as secretary, chair, past chair. She currently serves as the chair of nominating committee and member of the development committee and executive committee. Carla attends the agency’s fundraising events and sits on the planning committee to hands-on support the efforts. She participates in the agency’s awareness events which are months-long for February, April, and October, but what she enjoys the most is the events that directly engage the clients and the staff. Carla has been instrumental in helping guide the agency through many growing pains, including leadership and culture changes. She is an excellent networker in the community, always informing others about the agency and recruiting board members, employees, donors, and partners; expanding prevention programs; engaging media; and making connections, in general, to benefit the agency so BATP can continue and expand their important work.

When Carla was introduced to Bay Area Turning Point, she was just starting to publish a community newspaper – Small Change News – to highlight the people and organizations creating positive change in the community. As the publication grew to Change Magazine, she engaged readers with opportunities to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the good works going on around them. Using the voice of her publication, she began collecting items for the homeless and rounding up volunteers to visit them weekly in the camps where they lived in the woods near Hobby Airport. (“You’re crazy,” her family told her!) She has volunteered at homeless shelters, where she learned of the impact of domestic violence, particularly on women of all socio-economic backgrounds. She began to host empowerment workshops for women and led several retreats for women. She also joined the Friends of Devereux and was chair of their executive committee to work with teens impacted by abuse and addiction. To help influence public policy to better serve those affected by domestic violence, addiction, mental health challenges, and other marginalized groups, she was a founding member and served on the Bay Area Democratic Movement Board of Directors.

Carla Medlenka has been a free-spirited entrepreneur much of her life working in publishing, marketing, media, and communications, and currently works for a small non-profit physician certification board. She has had a lifelong passion for helping others and has been a volunteer of some sort since elementary school – supporting individuals and small, local organizations where her resources can directly improve the quality of life for people in her community. She is not only a model volunteer but a change agent in the Greater Clear Lake Community. Carla works full-time and, at some point, was the full-time caregiver to her adult son, who was severely injured. Even with all of this on her plate, she still makes giving back a part of her life’s mission and passion. Carla embraces opportunities and ways to uplift, inspire, and demonstrate how to be a willing worker in the community. Carla’s compassion for others and willingness to dig and make things happen is why she is truly deserving of recognition for her worth and value to us all. Carla Medlenka is Bay Area Turning Point’s Community Quarterback!

Congratulations to you Carla!!!!!! Thank you for all that you do for the agency!!!!!